Why Is Spam So Popular In Hawaii?

Many of us know Spam as that ultra-processed, super-salty canned lunch meat your grandma used to buy. (Either that or we know it as another word for junk mail derived from a "Monty Python" sketch.) Not that we're above that sort of thing, of course. Oscar Mayer bologna brand — which we declared our worst — is hardly any better, but many of us will reach for a slice of ham or pastrami before we reach for Spam.

In Hawaii, however, it's a very different story. There, you will find Spam served at breakfast alongside eggs or wrapped in seaweed on a bed of vinegar rice as musubi. McDonald's has a Spam breakfast platter specifically for the Aloha State, and there is even a whole food festival, the Waikiki Spam Jam, devoted to the canned meat. How did Spam, an American lunch meat produced by Hormel in Minnesota, become so beloved in Hawaii? Well, part of it is for the same reason it is popular anywhere: protein and Spam's shelf stability. But another part of it has to do with World War II.

Spam was invented in 1937, which turned out to be quite serendipitous. Just four years later, America would enter World War II, and the troops needed something flavorful, rich in protein, and (most importantly) shelf-stable. Hormel sent over 100 million pounds of Spam to American troops, many of whom were stationed in Hawaii (which was not yet a state at that point). The native Hawaiians who lived there before the American occupation were now in a perpetual war zone, with all the instability and rationing that implies.

One of the foods provided for rationing was Spam, and it proved to be a hit. Inexpensive and shelf-stable, careful diners could make a can of Spam last for quite a while. Eventually, the war ended, but Spam still stuck around, having become adopted into the local cuisine.

Mind you, many Hawaiians are ambivalent towards Spam, not in the sense of being indifferent, but in the classic definition of being torn between two equally strong reactions. It's an institution in Hawaii, and nostalgic memories are unavoidable; that said, it remains supremely unhealthy, contributing to the state's obesity crisis, and it only came to the islands in the first place due to American imperialism.